Greetings everyone. New user checking in. I look forward to getting to know the collecting community here at Net54.

My user ID is a reference to a website I built in 2006. I have collected Cal Ripken, Jr., ever since I have been collecting. I still have a copy of Cal's 1982 Topps rookie card that I got as a kid when I traded a box of UD basketball cards my mom bought me. The box had the Shaq Trade Upper Deck redemptions.

As an adult my attention focused on Cal's minor league cards. It was cool to be able to grab a card of a guy before he was famous. I learned that Cal had 4 minor league cards by himself and 2 cards that were a checklist/team photo. My goal was to someday own all of Cal's minor league cards.

When I took a job in 2004 I decided to jump at the opportunity to purchase a blue bordered 1980 WBTV card as a gift to myself. Fast forward to the fall of 2006 and I was able to purchase Cal's "Holy Grail" of minor league cards, a 1980 Charlotte O's Police orange bordered card. Very little was known about the card at that time so I had to research. I found a gentleman who worked for Cal's Ironclad Authentics and sent a note asking for help. To this day we are great friends.

In our initial conversations I told him that I had the blue bordered WBTV. He asked for a scan. Little did I know at the time that the 1980 WBTV was being used by counterfeiters. Sure enough, my WBTV was a counterfeit. I was pretty upset because I try to do my homework on big purchases. The information was simply not there. Having the new information I realized that counterfeits were being sold at least once per month at prices up to $1,000. I tried to get auctions pulled but it is not like I had credible information to back me up. With all of that said I decided to build a website to help others, ripkenintheminors.com

7 years later the site has grown to something I could have never imagined. I have been able to chronicle all of Cal's minor league cards, expand outside the cards and help educate a lot of fellow collectors. The site has been featured nationally and was even included in a recent book about the longest game in professional baseball history. The biggest honor of all was having Cal to personally participate in multiple interviews to help share his recollections about his minor league days.

Over the past few weeks, Cal's minor league cards have been hot. Take a look at recent sales:

June 6: PSA 6 WBTV - $2,499 (Ebay Buy It Now)

June 11: PSA 6 WBTV - $3,499 (Ebay But It Now)

June 11: PSA 2 Charlotte Police - $2,499 (Ebay Buy It Now)

June 14: SGC 40 WBTV - $2,750 not including commission (Huggins and Scott)

June 30: 1981 Rochester Lot. The lot included PSA 9 copies of Cal's TCMA, WTF and WTF checklist. The lot also included singles from the 1981 TCMA set and a Brooks Carey card from the 1981 WTF set - $1,650 (Ebay)

Great website. I did not know about these cards. I want the Larry Anderson 1980 Charlotte card now. As an Astro fan, Anderson was a key to the Astros march to their failed World Series appearance against the White Sox. Anderson and his Mariano Rivera-like cutter, brought Bagwell from the Red Sox at the trade deadline.

jp1216

07-10-2013, 06:24 AM

Welcome to Net54!
Love the website, but prefer the little brother....

http://www.billripken.com :D

RITM

07-10-2013, 11:18 AM

Thanks to everyone for the welcome.

I recently wrote an article about the recent spikes in sales. Once the article goes live I will be sure to share it here.

Leon

07-10-2013, 01:17 PM

This is such a good thread I took the liberty of copying it to the main forum so more folks could see it. Peasant status has it's privileges....

RITM

07-10-2013, 03:31 PM

This is such a good thread I took the liberty of copying it to the main forum so more folks could see it. Peasant status has it's privileges....

Thank you! In addition, thanks again for the help with the registration process.

RITM

07-10-2013, 03:34 PM

Here is some additional information about Cal's 1980 minor league cards with pictures: